V. I. Lenin

Speech Delivered At The

Second All-Russia Congress Of Soviets Of Peasants’ Deputies

December 2 (15), 1917

Delivered:2(15) December, 1917First Published:Izvestia, No. 244, December 6, 1917;
Published according the typewritten copy of the Minutes.Source:Lenin'sCollected Works, Progress Publishers,
Moscow, Volume 26, 1972, pp. 357-360Translated:Yuri
Sdobnikov and George Hanna, Edited by George HannaTranscription & HTML Markup:Charles Farrell and David WaltersOnline Version:Lenin Internet
ArchiveDecember, 2000

Comrades, at the last Extraordinary Congress of Peasants’ Deputies I
spoke as a member of the Bolshevik group and not as a member of the Council of
People’s Commissars, I am speaking in the same capacity today, for I consider it
important that the opinion of the Party of the Bolsheviks should be known to this
Congress of Peasants’ Deputies.

When I arrived here I heard part of the speech of the last speaker, who, turning to
me, told you that I wanted to disperse you at the point of the bayonet. Comrades, Russia
has grown too mature to suffer anyone to rule her. You know that from the moment the army
turned their weapons to win freedom, from the moment it became possible for the peasant
in uniform to meet and arrange matters with the peasant not in uniform, from that moment
there has been no fcre,e that can break the will of the people, the will of the peasants
and workers.

Comrades, I want to tell you how we understand the Revolution of October 25. Comrades,
it has been said here that a new wave of revolution may sweep the Soviets away. I say
“No”. I am firmly convinced that the Soviets will never perish; the
Revolution of October 25 proved that. The Soviets will never perish, for they were formed
as far back as the first revolution of 1905; they were formed after the February
revolution, and they were not formed on the initiative of any individual, but from below,
by the will of the masses. There can be no restrictions and no red tape, for they have
been formed by the will of the people, and the people are free to recall their
representatives at any moment. The Soviets are superior to any parliament, they are
superior to any constituent assembly,(Commotion and cries:That’s a lie!)
The Party of the Bolsheviks has always declared that the supreme body is the Soviets.
That cannot be called a lie, because the revolutioris in Europe that overthrew monarchies
formed bourgeois republics with the help of constituent assemblies, There has never
before been a revolution such as ours anywhere in the world, It is said that the
Revolution of October 25 created only “a Bolshevik government”. I might say
that there are not only Bolsheviks in the Council of People’s COMhnissars. Those of
you who remember the First Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’
Deputies will know that the Bolsheviks were then in the minority; but, having learned the
meaning of the policy of compromise from experience, the Second Congress of
Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, whieh represented the people, gave a
majority to the Bolshevik Party. When they tell me that bayonets may be directed against
the Soviets and shout it from the columns of the hostile press, I simply laugh. The
bayonets are in the hands of the workers, the soldiers and the peasants, and as long as
they are they will never be directed against the Soviets. Let the counter-revolution turn
its bayonets on the Soviets, it will not scare them.

Passing to the question of the Constituent Assembly, I must say that the Constituent
Assembly can help only if the people themselves are free to develop and build up a new
life. And I ask you: Is that the case?

I am telling you what you all know: “The sabbath was made for man and not man
for the sabbath”, Comrades, you know how the Constituent Assembly was elected. It
was elected by one of the most progressive election methods, for it is not individuals
who were elected, but representatives of parties. This is a step forward, for revolutions
are made by parties and not by individuals. When the elections to the Constituent
Assembly took place there was only oiie party of Socialist-Revolutionaries, the party
which has the majority in the Constituent Assembly. But that is not the case now.

You will perhaps say that the Bolsheviks also breught that about, Ne, cornrades, that
is a universal law, Always and everywhere, the people are slowly and painfully dividing
into two camps-that ef the dispossessed and downtrodden, of those who are fighting for a
brighter future for all working people, and that of those who in one way or another
support the landowriers and capitalists, When the elections took place the peeple did not
elect those who expressed their will and their desires, You say that we have declared the
whele Cadet Party enemies ef the people, Yes, we have. And thereby we expressed the will
of the Second Cejigress of Seviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, And
now that we are on the threshold of peace and the cessation ef the terrible slaughter
that has lasted three years, we are cenvinced that this is the demand ef all the working
people in all eountries, The everthrew of imperialism in Europe is proceeding slowly and
paiiiftilly, and imperialists in all countries will now see that the people are strong,
and in their strength will overthrow all whe stand in their way. We shall not be deterred
when people who are organising revolt against the workers and peasants, against the
Soviets, with the other hand show u their credentials to the Constituent Assembly, In
July we were told that we sheuld be proclaimed enemies of the people, And we answered,
“Try it”. If the bourgeeis gentlemen and their fellowers had enly tried to
say that to the peeple epenly! But they did not; they reserted to insinuation, slander
and mud-slinging When the bourgeoisie began the civil war (we witiiessed it), they
incited the efficer cadets te revolt, And we, the victors, were merciful to them, the
vanquished. More than that, we even spared their military honour, And now, when the
Constituent Assembly is being cenvened, we say: W shall open the Constituent Assembly as
seon as four hundre of its members arrive, We see that the conspiracy of th Cadets is
continuing, we see that they are organising revolt against the Soviets in the interests
of the money-bags of greed and riches, and we publicly proclaim them enemie of the
people, At a time when the terms of peace will shortl be known, when we are about to have
an armistice, when th members of the land committees will be immune from arrest when the
landed estates are being confiscated, and wlhe control will be established over the
factories-at such a time they are conspiring against us, against the Soviets. We
therefore declare that the party of the Cadets is a party of the bourgeoisie, that they
are enemies of the people, and that we shall fight them.